jason

eSchool News online - More ‘reliable’ Wikipedia soon to launch: “Aiming to create a more authoritative source of information than Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that allows anyone to post or edit subject-matter entries, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger is getting ready to launch a new collaborative web site. Called Citizendium, the new site will require posters to register their names and has tapped subject-matter experts to serve as content editors.”

I’m skeptical about this, though it seems necessary. I tried a number of times to become a http://dmoz.org/ editor in areas that I’m an acknowledged authority on, and was refused every time. So the ‘reliability’ will only be predicated on the diversity of the editors and the openness of their minds, AND both their own disclosure combined with a feedback mechanism where we can weigh in with data in support of positions that may be silenced by editors. I’m curious, but skeptical. If wikipedia merely required everyone to log in from an externally verrifiable account, we’d be in good shape/